The Staff and the Hand

Moses starts off his mission as God's emissary using his staff. Along with Aaron's staff, it was the instrument of the signs he was to do in Egypt - turning into a snake, bringing on the plagues.

However, if you look carefully, from the moment the plagues begin, the staffs become interchangeable with the hand.

Plague of BLOOD:
And the Lord spoke to Moses, Say to Aaron, Take your staff, and stretch out your hand upon the waters of Egypt… that they may become blood…

Plague of FROGS:
And the Lord spoke to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch forth your hand with your staff over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt

And so on:

LICE = "staff"

HAIL = "Stretch out your hand" (but Moses stretches his staff)

LOCUSTS = ditto

And at the Splitting of the Sea - staff, hand, hand, hand, hand.
(And the battle with Amalek - staff, hand, hands)

What is going on here?

It seems as if God started off with the staff intentiionally. Either because a staff is more impressive and would grant Moses and Aaron more respect. Or perhaps because people's attention would be more drawn to a staff as a symbol of God's power.  Also because they would, at the outset, not attribute the powers to Moses and Aaron, something God did not want to happen.

But then it begins to not matter when the hand is used instead. In fact, the hand takes over at the sea. 

Based on responses I received at a Bibliodrama session, we could suggest that the staff was educational at the beginning, but then after that God wanted them to see that it didn't matter if it was a staff OR a hand, because all of it was from God. And that is the main thing, not to start attributing false power to an object (we run into this risk later with the Ark of the Covenant too, when it is taken into battle).

Masculine/Feminine

One more idea is that the staff is a very masculine (phallic) symbol, in the positive sense in that it makes this happen and can be used for dramatic and violent effect - but also in the negative aspect of masculinity i.e. in being rigid, authoritarian, and punishing.

The hand however is feminine in being soft, human, flexible and fluid, able to take on infinite different shapes, and connected not only to itself but to the entire whole (i.e. the body). 

Therefore the move from staff to hand represents the transition from the masculine to the feminine mode, in a very subtle way that was before its time, and only becoms clear to us today as we reclaim "the moon's lost light".

(It takes a while for Moshe to understand this. He continues to use his staff, though God is commanding hand).

And yet, once again, ultimately it matters not if it is masculine (staff) or feminine (hand), for all are instruments for God's power and light. 

* Thank you to my Bibliozoom group for helping me develop these ideas.

Of Marriage and Sea

In a well known midrashic tale, a matron once asked Rabbi Yose son of Halafta, “How many days did it take God to create the world?” He replied, “Six”… She said, “So what has God been doing from that time till now?” He replied, “Sitting and making matches..." (Midrash Bereshit Raba 68/4).

The woman, says "That's all? I can do that!" and matches up 1000 menservants with 1000 maidservants. The matches are not successful, and they return with bruised eyes and broken legs.  

Immediately she sent for Rabbi Jose son of Halafta and said to him, “There is no God like yours, your Torah is truth, pleasant and superior. You spoke well.” He said to her, “Didn’t I tell you so? It may seem easy to you, but it’s as hard for God as the parting of the Red Sea."

At countless sheva brachots*, people discuss this odd statement. After all, there are many humans who have made successful matches, but very few who have parted a sea!

Moreoever - why compare the bringing together of two separate individuals with the splitting of the sea? These are two opposite energies, splitting and joining.

I think the question is a strong one, and though I will suggest some answers, it is worth continuing to think about.

One possible answer, is that getting married to someone inevitably means parting from something, and sometimes from many things: the past, our childhood, our fantasies, our complete independence... This process of parting, letting go, and maybe even mourning in some cases, is an important one. Once such parting has been done, the sea becomes whole again, and we become whole again, entering the new chapter and letting go of our previous single lives.

Another answer is indicated in the words (Exodus 14:27): The sea returned to its strength

Here, the midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 5:5) makes a word play on "to its strength" (לאיתנו) and mixes the letters around to change it "to its stipulation" (לתנאו). To the stipulation made when it was created - that when the Israelites would arrive, it would split.

Fine - but in the verse, the sea has returned to being sea again, unsplit. So why would the midrash describe this as "returning to its stipulation". It is rather returning to being water?

Perhaps because it is after changing in this way  that it truly fulfils the stipulation. It is a changed being, though it appears to be the same.

R' Shlomo Carlebach explains that we can take a lesson from this - that we should all be ready to change, for love, to step out of our rigid natures. And that is when we truly become who we were meant to be. See more here.

Returning now to the theme of matchmaking - in order for two people to come together, they have to change their natures, of being single and individual. They literally have to split open to make space for another person to walk through their center. This was the stipulation they were created with - that when this special person comes along, they will miraculously change and open. However, it is only when they return to being whole again in this new condition that the stipulation is ultimately fulfilled.

So when the matron tried to set up her menservants and maidservants, the problem was that none of them wished to split or change for their partner. Instead they wished to split their partner's lips and eyes! These violent images, coming in the context of love, indicate that love and marriage is not just flowers and roses, it is as earth-shaking and self-shattering as birth - and can be as fruitful. Whether we smile or cry from the growing pains depends on how we frame it.

And this is why it is difficult for G-d... asking humans to go through this for the sake of love. Compared to that, parting a sea is child's play.

(I thank Rute Yair Nussbaum for sharing her ideas, on which some of the above paragraph is based).

*For the seven days after a traditional Jewish wedding, it is customary to hold a meal in honour of the bride and groom, at which seven blessings (sheva brachot) are recited.